| Excel Saga | |
 Cover of the first manga volume featuring Excel (center) and Lord Il Palazzo (left) | |
| エクセル♥サーガ (Ekuseru Sāga) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Kōshi Rikudō |
| Published by | Shōnen Gahosha |
| English publisher | |
| Imprint | Young King Comics |
| Magazine | Young King OURs |
| Demographic | Seinen |
| Original run | 1996 –2011 |
| Volumes | 27(List of volumes) |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Shinichi Watanabe |
| Produced by |
|
| Written by | Jigoku Gumi[a] |
| Music by | Toshio Masuda |
| Studio | J.C.Staff |
| Licensed by | Crunchyroll |
| Original network | TV Tokyo |
| English network | |
| Original run | October 7, 1999 – March 30, 2000 |
| Episodes | 26(List of episodes) |
 Anime and manga portal | |
Excel Saga (Japanese:エクセル♥サーガ,Hepburn:Ekuseru Sāga) is a Japanesemanga series written and illustrated byKōshi Rikudō. It was serialized inShōnen Gahōsha'sseinen manga magazineYoung King OURs from 1996 to 2011, and its individual chapters were collected and published in 27tankōbon volumes . The series follows the attempts of Across, a "secret ideological organization", to conquer the city ofFukuoka as a first step towardsworld domination. The title character of the series,Excel, is a key member of the group who is working towards completing this goal, while the city is being defended by a shadowy government agency led byDr. Kabapu.
The manga was adapted into ananime television series byVictor Entertainment, which was taglinedQuack Experimental Animation (へっぽこ実験アニメーション,Heppoko Jikken Animēshon). Directed byShinichi Watanabe and featuring animation fromJ.C.Staff, the series premiered onTV Tokyo in 1999. TV Tokyo only aired twenty-five of the series' twenty-six episodes, with the finale having been intentionally made too violent, obscene and long for broadcast on Japanese TV. As such, it was only included in the DVD release of the series, although it has since been broadcast in other markets.
The series has enjoyed some critical success coupled with respectable sales.
Believing the World to be corrupt, the secret organization Across plans to conquer the world. The first step in the plan for world domination is to begin by focusing on one city in order to minimize setbacks. Across consists of the leader of the organization,Il Palazzo, and his young adult officers: the enthusiastic and energetically devotedExcel and the soft-spokenHyatt, who is prone to fainting and losing lots of blood at a time. Excel and Hyatt live in an apartment building in the city, along with their pet dogMenchi, who they have deemed their emergency food supply. Excel and Hyatt are later joined by a snobbish but equally clueless rival officer of Across namedElgala.
Living in the neighboring apartment are three guys:Iwata,Sumiyoshi andWatanabe, who along with apartment neighbor and co-workerMatsuya, work for the Department of City Security. The Department's leader,Dr. Kabapu, also has a grandiose plan on stopping Across; he has the City Security workers dress inSuper Sentai-like uniforms and sends them on different missions. Supporting Kabapu is an inventorGojo Shiouji wholikes little girls, and hisgynoidRopponmatsu, who later is deployed as two models.
The series follows the daily interactions among the two groups. Il Palazzo would send the girls on their missions but the results are usually a failure with some explosive or catastrophic damage to the city. Kabapu would send the City Security workers on some equally ridiculous assignment which would also go wrong. Eventually Il Palazzo and Kabapu become aware of each other's manipulations and escalate their plans. Excel finds herself being replaced by an impersonator who heads the ILL Corporation. Massive amounts of money is spent on elections and politics. Eventually the members of Across begin making appeals directly to the City's citizens before Il Palazzo publicly declares the existence of Across and its intentions to the public. Hyatt is captured and Excel and Elgala are later held in an immigrant detention center before being rescued by Il Palazzo, who begins the new phase of his plans.
The anime adaptation introduces some original characters: immigrant worker turned wandering spiritPedro; alien mascot-like creatures calledPuchuu; andThe Great Will of the Macrocosm, the last of whom occasionally resets the storyline. The anime directorShinichi Watanabe cameos as an afro-wearing guy namedNabeshin, and a caricature of the manga artist also makes appearances.
The series was created byRikdo Koshi and based on adojinshi he had previously created while in high school namedMunicipal Force Daitenzin (市立戦隊ダイテンジン,Shiritsu Sentai Daitenjin).Excel Saga was created as an evolution ofDaitenzin in order to develop the character of Excel, as well as to laugh off the vision of a depressed and pessimistic view of the world.[4][5]Excel Saga is set inFukuoka City and the names of characters and organisations are derived from local locations and buildings.[6]
Victor Entertainment contactedShōnen Gahōsha about adaptingExcel Saga into an anime, and the two companies approached Rikdo.Shinichi Watanabe was chosen as director. Watanabe added his own alter ego, Nabeshin, and expanded several elements. He says that the Great Will in the manga was "conveyed just as words", and he himself developed its appearance, eventually settling on the "swirling, talking cosmos". He also increased Pedro's role in the story from a single frame in the manga. Watanabe says he was pleased with that aspect of his work, noting that "Pedro's situation was considered unsuitable for broadcast in Japan".[7] The anime production staff was given the freedom to do anything they wanted as long as they kept the theme of the series intact, and Rikdo requested they created a separate timeline; this departure from the original work was acknowledged in-story, with each episode opening with a caricature of Rikdo giving "Nabeshin" permission to diverge from the source material, hence the anime's "Quack Experimental" tagline. Rikdo would later become influenced by the anime series due to its quick broadcast in comparison to the monthly schedule of the manga.[4] The anime makes frequent use ofparody and in-jokes ascomedic devices, with each episode having a genre-based theme. This extends to the animation, with several characters designed in the style of other works, such as those byLeiji Matsumoto.[8]Kotono Mitsuishi was chosen to play the role of Excel, and Watanabe was impressed with Mitsuishi's rapid delivery of her lines, saying that "she really pushed herself to the limit and beyond". He also says, "at times she was too fast, and there was plenty of time left to match the lip-synch". In such cases, either he would add new material or Mitsuishi wouldad-lib.[7] At first Rikdo felt stunned and uncomfortable at hearing Excel speak, but he called the casting "amazing" and was pleased to hear his favourite voice actors read lines from his work.[4]
The series began serialization in 1996 inShōnen Gahōsha'sseinen manga magazineYoung King OURs and finished in August 2011.[9] The 183 individual chapters were collected in 27tankōbon volumes by Shōnen Gahōsha from April 23, 1997, to October 29, 2011.[10][11] A 60-pageone-shot was published inYoung King OURs on December 28, 2021, to celebrate the series' 25th anniversary.[12]
Viz Media licensedExcel Saga for an English release in North America and the first volume was released on August 13, 2003.[13] Initially the series was published on an approximately bimonthly schedule, however the series had caught up with the Japanese release and the publishing schedule for volume 12 onwards was changed as a result.[14] Volume 27 was released on January 14, 2014.[15] The Viz edition includes a section calledOubliette, which consists of a sound effects guide and production and cultural notes.[6] The series is also licensed for regional language releases in France byKabuto and in Italy byDynit.[16][17]
An anime adaption was produced byJ.C.Staff and directed byShinichi Watanabe. Twenty five episodes were broadcast onTV Tokyo between October 7, 1999, and March 30, 2000.[18] At the publisher's request, the anime series follows a different storyline from the manga, however Rikdo was pleased with the adaptation.[19] Victor Entertainment produced the music of the series, which was composed and arranged byToshio Masuda and directed by Keiichi Nozaki. Director Shinichi Watanabe wrote the lyrics for the opening and closing themes,. The opening theme which were performed byYumiko Kobayashi andMikako Takahashi who were credited asThe Excel♥Girls. The lyrics for the opening themeLove (Loyalty) (｢愛(忠誠心)｣,Ai (Chūseishin)) were written "on the train, five minutes before the deadline".[7] The closing theme wasMenchi's Bolero of Sorrow (｢メンチの哀愁のボレロ｣,Menchi no Aishū no Borero) The two themes were released together as a CD single on November 3, 1999.[20]
A twenty-sixth episode,Going Too Far, was deliberately created to be too violent and obscene for broadcast in Japan and was instead included as a DVD bonus. Watanabe commented that it "felt good to go past the limits of a TV series", although he thinks it "is not something that you should do too often".[19] In Japan the series was released on 12 DVDs between March 1, 2000, and January 24, 2001.[21][22]
The series was licensed for an English language release in North America and the United Kingdom byADV Films and in Australia and New Zealand byMadman Entertainment. The English adaptation initially starredJessica Calvello, with Larissa Wolcott taking over the role after episode thirteen after Calvello had damaged her voice during production.[23] In North America, ADV released the series on six DVDs between June 11, 2002, and April 8, 2003.[24][25] A complete collection of the series was released on July 6, 2004, asExcel Saga - The Imperfect collection and re-released in different packaging on August 1, 2006, asExcel Saga - Complete Collection.[26][27] In the UK, the series was first released between May 19, 2003, and March 15, 2004.[28][29] A complete box set was later released asExcel Saga - Complete Box Set on July 2, 2007.[30] The UK license for the series expired in January 2008.[31] The series was broadcast on UK TV channelRapture TV from January 2, 2007.[32]
On October 30, 2010, Excel Saga was re-licensed in North America byFunimation, who re-released the complete series to DVD on May 17, 2011.[33]
Several albums were released featuring music from the anime. (Excel Saga - Original Soundtrack Experiment 1 (エクセル・サーガ ― 大いなるサウンドトラック実験1)) was released on January 1, 2000.[34] The album was later released in North America on August 9, 2005.[35] This was followed in Japan by (Excel Saga - Original Soundtrack Experiment 2 (エクセル・サーガ ― 大いなるサウンドトラック実験2 おまけ 寸止め海峡)) on March 23, 2000.[36] A North American release followed on November 1, 2005.[35]
Since its August 2003 release in North America, the manga has been among the 50 top-selling graphic novels on three occasions.[37][38][39]
The English-language reviews of theExcel Saga anime were broadly positive and enthusiastic. Mike Crandol ofAnime News Network puts it in the same class asAirplane!,National Lampoon,Tex Avery, andMonty Python, adding that the "combination of character-based humor, outrageous slapstick farce, and a plot that is engaging if only for how weird it is make for a thoroughly enjoyable comedic experience".[8] A contrary opinion is expressed by Joel Pearce from DVD Verdict, who says the series is "occasionally clever and funny," but that "much of it is gratingly obnoxious".[40] Many reviewers express displeasure with middle and later episodes, saying they were "more of the same," that they had stale humor, that they were tiresome, or even painfully unfunny.[40][41][42] Episodes fourteen through sixteen, starring the Ropponmatsus, bear the brunt of this criticism, but several reviewers consider episode seventeen,Animation USA, to be one of the best.[40][42][43][44]
Reviewers also agree that the series suffers from too much filler in its later episodes, with Crandol describing the show as spinning its wheels.[45] Yegulalp reserves his harshest words for the unairedGoing Too Far, calling it "pure, idiotic, wretched excess." He goes on to say that the episode has "the feeling of trying to deliberately enrage the audience by resorting to the only tactics left: genuinely offensive subject matter." Joel Cunningham at Digitally Obsessed disagrees, saying that the episode succeeds just in time, "with one of the series' funnier sight gags".[46]
The series generally receives high marks for technical aspects. Cunningham feels the animation is flat-out gorgeous, but Crandol considers it merely above average. In the latter's opinion, its quality wanes as the series progresses and increasingly relies onsuper-deforming the characters for comedic effect.[42][47] ADV's release earned praise for the quality of the video transfer and the DVD extras (particularly the Vid-Notes).[8][46] Reviewers especially appreciated the English voice acting: Crandol calls it brilliant, and several note that Calvello and Wolcott were each able to captureMitsuishi's Excel.[8][42][44] Pearce, in contrast, found the English cast to be pretty bad and its Excel to be "dental drill shrill".[40]
Akadot's reviewer of the manga writes that "some of the strange events go on a little too long and do not have the impact that they do animated," but that Rikdo'sExcel Saga is "graced with fantastic visuals and a hilarious story," and that the English edition is "a masterpiece of the translator's skill."[48] Barb Lien-Cooper from Comic World News concurs that the manga cannot keep pace with the anime, but she finds Excel herself to be wittier in the manga and that the manga's plots make more sense than the anime's.[49] A reviewer of the French edition also praises Rikdo's work, noting that it is an "...easy read without problems of clarity".[50]
1999's Excel Saga is a masterpiece of non-stop parody and surreal gags.
